One of the most common issues our clients face when trying to apply for legalisation on their own is documents being rejected. This can happen for a number of reasons – the FCDO has specific requirements for different types of documents, and it can be difficult to know whether your document is ready for the apostille.
Fortunately, at Pardus Bloom we have an abundance of experience notarising, apostilling, attesting and legalising all types of documents, and we know the requirements inside-and-out.
Read on for some basic steps you can take to minimise the risk of delays!
Step 1. Check for a signature, stamp or seal.
Most documents being submitted for legalisation will need to have a wet-ink signature, stamp or seal – this means the signature/seal/stamp usually has to be the original, written or stamped in ink, not a scan or e-signature. The main exception to this rule is when submitting a document for an E-apostille, a new option which the FCDO has recently begun offering, in which case the electronically-issued document would have to have a notary or solicitor’s official digital signature/seal.
If your document does not have a wet-ink signature, stamp, or seal, and you are submitting it for a paper apostille, it will most likely need to be certified. More on this later…
Step 2. Check that the signature is from a public official.
The apostille can only authenticate signatures and seals of UK public officials. For details on what this means, see our article on Public Officials.
For instance, documents signed by the following can be apostilled immediately:
- Notaries (Also referred to as Notary Publics and Public Notaries)
- Solicitors
- Officials of a government department (eg. DVLA, HMRC, DEFRA)
- Doctors registered with the General Medical Council
If the signature is not from a public official, the document will need to be certified.
Step 3. If either of the above requirements are not met, have your document certified.
Certification can be completed by a UK notary or solicitor, although in certain cases notarisation is preferred or required by the receiving party. At Pardus Bloom, we prefer notarisation, as it tends to be more internationally recognised.
When you have a document certified, it is important to check that the notary or solicitor has included:
- Their signature
- Their full name
- Their business address
- The date
- The action they have taken (eg. witnessed, certified true copy, verified etc.)
Documents missing any of the above will be rejected at the apostille stage by the FCDO. It can also be useful for the solicitor or notary to include their phone number or email address in case of any queries. Including a Solicitor’s Regulation Authority (SRA) number as applicable also reduces the time necessary to check for a solicitor’s contact details.
Signature queries
Sometimes, even when all of the above steps have been followed, a document may still be rejected at the apostille stage due to the FCDO not holding the official’s signature in their records. At Pardus Bloom, we do our best to check ahead of time when dealing with unfamiliar signatures to minimise delays to your document legalisation process.
Other document legalisation issues
A document may be rejected for reasons other than signature issues. Most commonly, this happens when the document is:
- Not a UK document – birth, death and marriage certificates from abroad can only be apostilled by the FCDO as translations. Original documents must be legalised in their country of origin.
- A copy when it needs to be an original – the FCDO will not accept photocopies of General Register Office certificates (eg. birth, death and marriage certificates). Most other documents can be submitted for legalisation as copies as long as they are certified.
- Particularly old – on rare occasions, documents may be so old that they were issued by officials who were never put on record or by registration districts which no longer exist. In these cases, new official duplicates can normally be requested.
Still not sure? Ask us.
Pardus Bloom specialises in facilitating the process of document legalisation. We can be reached by phone at 020 3839 9090, by email at enquires@pardusbloom.com, or on WhatsApp at +44 7719 513597.